Cherokee County Student Charged for the Death of a Creekview Senior

A student from Cherokee Country was finally arrested and charged last month for driving under the influence and causing the car accident that took the life of a rising Creekview senior, earlier in the Summer. Mahlon Thornton was killed in the accident; however, the driver of the vehicle did live after being treated for minor injuries. The accident took place on June 19 near Ball Ground, Georgia. Although the accident took place earlier this year, the Traffic Enforcement Unit has just now recently finished their investigations. The accident took place mid-June, and the investigation was finalized and Cameron was finally charged in late October.

“Cameron Childers, an 18-year-old from Canton, Georgia, was charged with one count each of vehicular homicide, vehicular homicide in the second degree, driving under the influence of drugs, reckless driving, weaving over the roadway and speeding”, according to Cherokee Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Sgt. Marianne Kelley.

“The driver in the accident, Cameron Childers, 17 years of age at the time of the accident, was driving westbound on Hightower Road when his Dodge Ram pickup truck left the roadway traveling down an embankment where it struck a tree causing the death of his passenger, Mahlon Thornton, 16 years of age,” said Sgt. Kelley. At the scene of the accident, Childers was reported to have been driving under the influence of alcohol. After the accident, a toxicology report was done on Cameron to determine whether or not he (the driver of the vehicle) had been under the influence of anything else besides alcohol, and it came back positive for having marijuana in his system at the time of the crash.

After the accident, Cameron was taken to the hospital. He there was treated for a few minor injuries but was later released. On Friday, Oct. 27, almost five months after his accident, “Childers turned himself into the Cherokee County Adult Detention Center and was released from jail that same day on a bond of $14,227,” Marianne said.

“As a rising senior at Creekview High School, Thornton had worked at Queenie’s Southern Restaurant in Canton and Georgia Lawn. Before coming to Creekview, he attended Lost Mountain Middle School and Harrison High School, and worshiped at Macland Presbyterian Church and Due West Methodist Church,” reported Sergeant Kelley. It was reported that both Cameron and Mahlon were wearing their seatbelts during the time of the crash.